The government, like it did with hydrocarbons, is set to open up exploration and production of atomic minerals to private mining companies. Kumar said rules for opening up exploration of atomic minerals to the private sector will be brought out shortly. Some of the minerals classified as atomic minerals have other industrial applications, too. The Department of Atomic Energy’s target is to have 63GW of nuclear power capacity by 2032. There are large deposits of uranium in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Telangana, according to the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research.

Source: Mint June 13, 2016 20:15 UTC